Perfumes are a desirable part of the laundry process. They are used to cover up the chemical odors of the cleaning ingredients and provide an aesthetic benefit to the wash process and, preferably, the cleaned fabrics. Perfumes are often added directly to laundry compositions, such as by spraying the perfume onto or mixing it into finished compositions. However, perfumes generally are volatile and many perfume ingredients can be destroyed or damaged by contact with cleaning ingredients, especially alkali and bleaches. To minimize direct contact between perfume and bleach components in granular compositions, bleaches are sometimes admixed after perfume spray-on. Even this does not avoid oxidation of perfumes by bleaches, particularly when reactive bleaches such as peroxyacids are present, at least partly because of perfume mobility in the compositions. Perfuming liquid and gel compositions containing peroxyacid bleach is even more difficult because of the direct contact between the perfume and bleach.
One solution to this incompatibility problem is encapsulation of the perfume. This increases the expense and complexity of formulation and does not always provide sufficient protection.
European Patent Application 332,259, published Sep. 13, 1989, discloses granular detergent or bleaching compositions containing peroxyacid bleach, including amidoperoxyacids, and perfumed silica particles which separate and protect the perfume from oxidation by the bleach.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,634,551, Burns et al, issued Jan. 6, 1987, 4,686,063, Burns, issued Aug. 11, 1987, and 4,909,953, Sadlowski et al, issued Mar. 20, 1990, disclose amidoperoxyacid bleaches useful in the present invention. These compositions can include other ingredients such as perfumes, but no specific perfume ingredients are mentioned.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,631, Sims et al, issued May 8, 1990, discloses bleach and/or detergent compositions containing peracid bleach and perfume ingredients which do not contain alkenyl or alkynyl groups and have peracid stability values of at least 65%.
Despite the above disclosures in the art, there is a continuing need for the development or identification of perfumes suitable for use in liquid or gel bleaching compositions containing amidoperoxyacid bleach and which have good stability when in direct contact with such bleach.